Xll 
Report on Salmon Fisheries. 
sion shall be forfeited; and the burden of proving that such salmon 
or part of a salmon was lawfully captured shall lie on the person 
selling, or offering, or exposing for sale, or having in possession such 
salmon or part of a salmon. 
Approved by the Tay District Board. 
Mackenzie and Dickson, Clerks. 
PERTH, Uh October 1889. 
The above clause is almost identical with that suggested by the 
Clerks to the Dee and Don District Boards. There can be little 
doubt that the insertion of such a clause, in any future legis- 
lative measure for regulating the exportation of salmon, would 
effectually put a stop to the sale of fish caught during the extension 
of time for rod-fishing in Scotland ; which, unfortunately, though 
illegal in England and under the Tweed Fisheries Acts, is still 
legal in Scotland. 
inspection of The Inspector of Salmon Fisheries afterwards inspected the 
Macdonaid Macdonaid Fishways on Westfield Weir and Ashbank Weir on 
fishways on . . ^ . ....... 
the River the river Ericht, near Blairgowrie, which have been m operation 
Encht. £ or several years, in order to ascertain whether these fishways, 
when applied to obstructions on a rapid river, which brings down 
in floods quantities of gravel and other debris, will enable salmon 
to surmount the obstruction and reach the upper waters; or 
whether the tubes, on which the efficient action of the Macdonaid 
Fish way so much depends, are liable to be choked up by the 
gravel swept down by the river, so that the proper and efficient 
action of the fishway is thereby destroyed. The result of the 
Inspector's examination of these Fishways was that he arrived at 
the conclusion that, as at present constructed, they are liable to 
be entirely deranged and rendered useless by the lodging in the 
tubes of the various substances brought down in floods by a rapid 
river like the Ericht. A detailed account of the Inspector's 
examination of the east coast rivers and of these fishways will be 
found in his Report to the Board, which forms the Appendix to 
this Report, where will also be found a Report on the Fishways 
by Mr Lumsden, Superintendent to the Tay District Board. The 
question of whether the Macdonaid Fishway is, or is not, an 
efficient means of enabling salmon to surmount natural and arti- 
ficial obstructions in salmon rivers is one of much interest and 
importance. Its slope is much shorter and steeper than that of 
any other fishway, and, in consequence, it is less costly; and so 
long as the tubes remain clear there is black water throughout the 
fishway, and salmon have no difficulty in ascending. But, when a 
number of the tubes cease to act, owing to their being choked up 
and disabled by gravel, twigs, or other rubbish brought down in 
floods, the black water in the fishway, owing to its steep gradient, 
becomes a white foaming torrent which no salmon will face. 
The Report by Colonel Marshall Macdonaid, thehead of the United 
States Fisheries Commission, to the Tay District Board in 1884, as 
to the erection of Salmon-ladders on the Falls of Tuinmel and on 
obstructions on the river Ericht will be found in Note IV. to the 
Inspector's Third Annual Report to the Board. 
